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There are some schools of thought that say you shouldn't use the same kind of cornbread that you like to eat plain when you are making a cornbread stuffing. They suggest using denser or sturdier cornbread that won't break or crumble when mixed in, but will hold its shape just like bread cubes do. My feeling is that if your cornbread is good when eaten on its own, it will make great stuffing even if the cornbread cubes crumble a bit when you go to mix them up with the rest of the stuffing ingredients. With this in mind, I used part of a batch of Maple Cornbread to make some sweet and savory stuffing.
This stuffing is the type that is baked alongside a turkey, rather than being stuffed inside of one. It has a soft and most interior and a lovely crispy crust on top. The flavor of the stuffing is a little unusual for a couple of reasons. The fact that cornbread is used gives it a lot of flavor and texture, but putting that aside, the most interesting elements here are the fresh cranberries. Cooked slightly before being mixed in, the berries are juicy and tart – not common flavorings in stuffing. The mixture also has red pepper flakes for heat, cumin for some smokiness, maple syrup, and a mixture of celery and onions.
Sausage is an optional element here. You can add in some sausage (I recommend something slightly spicy) when you are sauteing the celery and onions, but you can also easily omit it to make the stuffing completely vegetarian. With the sausage, the stuffing is really a meal on its own, so it might be best to keep it veg if you're planning on using it as a side dish during an already big holiday meal.
My final note on this stuffing is that it can be prepared a day in advance and baked just before serving. Once the ingredients are mixed and placed in your baking dish, cover with aluminum foil and refrigerate for up to 24 hours before baking. The stuffing can also be reheated in a 375 oven – covered if you like yours soft and open if you like yours crunchy – for about 20 minutes.
Maple Cornbread Stuffing
3/4 pan Maple Cornbread (6-7 cups)
2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup water
1 cup diced celery
1 cup diced onion (1 med.)
1/2 pound slightly spicy sausage (optional)
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tbsp dried parsley
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup vegetable/chicken stock
Preheat oven to 350F.
Cut cornbread into 1/2 or 3/4 inch cubes. Place in a very large mixing bowl.
In a small saucepan, combine cranberries and water. Bring to a boil and cook until cranberries start to pop. Mix in maple syrup.
In a saute pan, cook celery and onions with a small amount of butter or oil until tender. If using sausage, roughly chop it up and add it to the pan at this point to cook alongside the onions and celery. Onions will be translucent after about 5-10 minutes. Stir in red pepper flakes, parsley, cumin and add salt and pepper, to taste. Add mixture to cornbread cubes. Pour cranberry mixture and vegetable/chicken stock over the top of the cornbread. Stir to combine, making sure mixture is evenly moistened.
Transfer to a 10 or 12-cup casserole dish and let cool before baking.
Bake for 30 minutes covered with aluminum foil, then remove foil and bake for an additional 30 minutes, until top of stuffing is golden and crispy.
Serve hot.
Serves 8-10.


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This is the AMain Sports & Hobbies Flex Fit hat with Gears Logo. This hat features an embroidered AMain Sports & Hobbies and "Gears" logo on the front in white and orange stitching. Another "Gears" logo can be seen on the reverse of the hat.
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This product was added to our catalog on September 4, 2014

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Whittaker Chambers
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Whittaker Chambers (1 April 1901 – 9 July 1961) was an American writer and editor, who first served in the Soviet underground and later, under subpoena before the House Un-American Activities Committee, alleged that he had run several spy rings of former Federal officials, including Alger Hiss.
TIME magazine (1939-1948)[edit]
- The Wizard of Oz (M. G. M.) should settle an old Hollywood controversy: whether fantasy can be presented on the screen as successfully with human actors as with cartoons. ("The New Pictures," August 21, 1939)
- All children are afraid of the night; when they grow up, they are still afraid, but more afraid of admitting it. ("Night Thoughts," May 8, 1939)
- When the train of history makes a sharp turn, said Lenin, the passengers who do not have a good grip on their seats are thrown off. Last week the Communist Limited had just about completed the dizzy turn from the Communazi Pact to the Battle of Britain, and U. S. literary liberals were spattered all over the right of way. ("Revolt of the Intellectuals," January 6, 1941)
- The book begins with the clang of a cell door closing in a GPU prison. It ends with a shot in the back of the head in a murky passageway of the prison cellar. It moves with the speed, directness, precision and some of the impact of a bullet. ("Brightest in Dungeons," May 26, 1941)
- "What statesmanship! What vision! What power! We have known nothing like it since my ancestor, Peter the Great, broke a window into Europe by overrunning the Baltic states in the 18th Century. Stalin has made Russia great again!" ("The Ghosts on the Roof," March 5, 1945)
- Once upon a time, when the Yewnited States was just a little shaver among the nations, but already very spoiled along the literate Eastern fringes, there lived younder in Tennessee a lovable old man with a tongue like a rat-tailed file and a face so hard they called him Old Hickory. ("The Old Deal," October 22, 1945)
- Toscanini was hailing a great artist, but that voice was more than a magnificent personal talent. It was the religious voice of a whole religious people — probably the most God-obsessed (and man-despised) people since the ancient Hebrews. ("In Egypt Land," December 30, 1946)
- In the 20th Century, treason became a vocation whose modern form was specifically the treason of ideas. ("The Circles of Perdition," December 8, 1947)
- Reinhold Niebuhr's new orthodoxy is the oldtime religion put through the intellectual wringer. It is a re-examination of orthodoxy for an age dominated by such trends as rationalism, liberalism, Marxism, fascism, idealism and the idea of progress.
Witness (1952)[edit]
(New York: Random House, 1952)
- Two faiths were on trial . Human societies, like human beings, live by faith and die when faith dies... At heart, the Great Case was this critical conflict of faiths; that is why it was a great case. (p. 4)
- Tragedy occurs when a human soul awakes and seeks, in suffering and pain, to free itself from crime, violence, infamy, even at the cost of life. The struggle is the tragedy - not defeat or death. That is why the spectacle of tragedy has always filled men, not with despair, but with a sense of hope and exaltation. (pp. 4-5)
- A man is not primarily a witness against something. (p. 5)
- The last war simplified the balance of political forces in the world by reducing them to two . For the first time, it made the power of the Communist sector of mankind (embodied in the Soviet Union) roughly equal to the power of the free sector of mankind (embodied in the United States). It made the collision of these powers all but inevitable. For the world wars did not end the crisis. They raised its tensions to a new pitch. They raised the crisis to a new stage. All the politics of our time, including the politics of war, will be the politics of this crisis. (p. 7)
- My eye came to rest on the delicate convolutions of her ear-those intricate, perfect ears. The thought passed through my mind: "No, those ears were not created by any chance coming together of atoms in nature (the Communist view). They could have been created only by immense design." (p. 16)
- In 1937, I began, like Lazarus, the impossible return. I began to break away from Communism and to climb from deep within its underground, where for six years I had been buried, back into the world of free men. (p. 25)
- I wanted my wife to realize clearly one long-term penalty, for herself and for the children, of the step I was taking. I said: "You know, we are leaving the winning world for the losing world." (p. 25)
- He was a Southerner with the fine abandon some Southerners have about firearms and related matters. "Well, sir," he said with immense pleasure, "you've bought the right gun. Just hold it in front of you, squeeze the trigger, and, brother, it will be fay-ya-you-well." (p. 58)
- [Stalin's] purge caused me to examine the meaning of Communism.... I had always known of course that there were books critical of Communism.... I had never read them because I knew that the party did not want me to read them..... the first book I read... was called I Speak for the Silent [by] Professor Vladimir Tchernavin.... He was a little man in the Communist world, gentle, humane, good.... Suddenly for no reason at all he was arrested and carried away by the secret police.... Now for the first time, I believed that slave labor camps existed.... I said 'this is evil, absolute evil. Of this evil I am a part.' ... If Communism were evil, what was left but moral chaos? .... The rags that fell from me were not only Communism. What fell was the whole web of the materialist modern mind – the luminous shroud which it has spun about the spirit of man, paralyzing in the name of rationalism the instinct of his soul for God, denying in the name of knowledge the reality of the soul.... (pp. 79-83)
- Then he asked in German (the only language that we ever spoke): "Ist die Sowjetregierung eine faschistische Regierung? - Is the Soviet Government a fascist government?"… I sat silent for some moments. Then I said: "Ja, die Sowjetregierung ist eine faschistische Regierung - the Soviet Government is a fascist government"… Krivitsky turned for the first time and looked at me directly. "Du hast recht," he said, "und Kronstadt war der Wendepunkt - You are right, and Kronstadt was the turning point." (pp. 459-460)
- Yet, so strong is the hold which the insidious evil of Communism secures upon its disciples, that I could still say to someone at that time: "I know that I am leaving the winning side for the losing side, but it is better to die on the losing side than to live under Communism." (p. 25)
- I cannot ever inform against anyone without feeling something die within me. I inform without pleasure because it is necessary. (p. 456)
- No one mentioned Communism or the Hiss Case until we sat over our coffee in the living room. Mrs. Philip Jessup had just used her personal good offices to try to get me off TIME. Luce was baffled by the implacable clamor of the most enlightened people against me. "By any Marxian pattern of how classes behave," he said, "the upper class should be for you and the lower classes should be against you. But it is the upper class that is most violent against you. How do you explain that?" "You don't understand the class structure of American society," said Smetana, "or you would not ask such a question. In the United States, the working class are Democrats. The middle class are Republicans. The upper class are Communists." (p.616)
- "The story has spread that in testifying against Mr. Hiss I am working out some old grudge, or motives or revenge or hatred. I do not hate Mr. Hiss. We were close friends, but we are caught in a tragedy of history. Mr. Hiss represents the concealed enemy against which we are all fighting, and I am fighting. I have testified against him with remorse and pity, but in a moment of history in which this Nation now stands, so help me God, I could not do otherwise." (pp. 694-695) (televised testimony of August 25, 1948)
- The Hiss Case has turned my wife and me into old people - not a disagreeable condition. But we who used to plan in terms of decades, now find a year, two years, the utmost span of time we can take in. (p. 798)
Cold Friday (1964)[edit]
(New York: Random House, 1964)
- A nation's life is about as long as its reverential memory. (p. 40)
- The Columbia faculty was not, of course, composed wholly of young skeptics and esthetes. By any count of academic noses, they were a small minority. (p. 119)
- Trotsky was essentially a Western mind. Lenin was a Russian, and unlike most other revolutionary exiles, wherever he went he was a Russian. (p. 186)
- Die goldene Medina. The accent was not on the golden (except in the sense of some mysterious Light), but on the Medina - that is, the city of hope, the city of deliverance. (p. 281)
- The satellite revolt was not sparked from the West. It was sparked by Communism itself. (p. 315)
Odyssey of a Friend (1969)[edit]
(New York: Putnam, 1969)
- It is in fact no exaggeration to say that we live in terror that Senator McCarthy will one day make some irreparable blunder that will play directly into the hands of our common enemy and discredit the whole anti-Communist effort for a long while to come. (p. 52)
- Now, the Communists recognized at once (or, more probably, after they had stirred things up a bit) that Senator McCarthy is a political godsend. (p. 57)
- Conservatism is alien to the very nature of capitalism. (p. 229)
Notes from the Underground (1997)[edit]
(Washington: Regnery, 1997)
- Lenin was a Great Russian peasant et rien de plus, mais r-r-rien de plus. Oh yes, he was a dialectician, the only true one among them. But most of all he was a Russian and that is to be a peasant. (p. 274)


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COMP Cams Pushrods CS 8.050 5/16 W/.210
Designed for high lift applications where pushrod and seat interference are problems at maximum lift, Hi-Tech 210? Radius Pushrods work well with rocker arms that feature cup type adjusters and applications that demand pushrods with more load bearing surface. Hi-Tech 210? Radius Pushrods have the same features as other Hi-Tech Pushrods, with the addition of a 210? radius rather than standard 180? radius. Featuring a one-piece design from .080? wall, seamless chromemoly tubing that ensures exceptional durability, the pushrods are heat-treated for maximum strength, OD ground for consistency and black-oxide finished with length and part number laser etched on for easy identification.


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Monday, August 26, 2013
Back To School Lunch Box Ideas with Kraft {#KraftRecipes}
Anticipation because the excitement that my kids have for getting to be back with their friends and focusing on their love of learning is contagious.
Dread, however, over the fact I know that I'm going to miss their little faces every day... and that I have to pack their lunches. I'm not the only one who looks at a child's lunch box and silently curses it, right? Why is it so difficult to come up with something nutritious and filling that they will happily eat?
This is why this year I am determined to not leave things to the last minute, only to find myself scrambling to throw something together every weekday morning. Instead, I've been happily browsing through the wide selection of recipes, ingredients and more at KraftRecipes.com to get a few new sandwich recipes and other ideas.
Upon stumbling on the Polka Dot Sandwich, I hardly was finished reading the ingredients to my kids before they were enthusiastically nodding their heads!
Both of my girls tend to stick with the classic peanut butter and jelly, so as soon as I saw that this sandwich combines a little sweet, a little chewy and a whole lot of flavor, I was reaching for my loaf of bread to try it out.
Polka Dot Sandwich
2 slices whole wheat bread
2 tbsp PHILADELPHIA Strawberry Cream Cheese Spread
9 banana slices (about ½ of a medium banana)
1 tbsp raisins
Spread both slices of bread with cream cheese spread.
Top one bread slice with bananas in three rows of three slices each. Sprinkle remaining bread slice with raisins; press gently into cream cheese to secure.
Close sandwich to serve. Enjoy!
As suspected, my girls were thrilled with this new sandwich option and have both declared it a must-have for school lunches (and beyond).
In fact, we've already been discussing variations that we would like to attempt, for instance, using regular PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese Spread and strawberries or replacing the banana with slices of nectarine. The options are endless!
This season, be sure to browse the large number of recipes available at KraftRecipes.com to find a huge selection of snack and sandwich ideas that are creative, delicious, fun and perfect for enjoying at home or in a lunch box.
This post is a part of a partnered campaign with Kraft Foods, however, all thoughts and opinions shared are honest and my own.
24 comments:
- Karen Glatt said...
I like the Polka Dot sandwich because it is very healthy and I am glad that it uses whole wheat bread. I will have to make this for lunch. Thanks for recipe!
- August 26, 2013 at 10:23 AM
- Unknown said...
I love the idea of the "Polka Dot Sandwich".... For myself, I like the fact that it is healthy, but the kids will love it because its different and "kool". Thanks for the receipe/info.
- August 26, 2013 at 10:36 AM
- An Apel a Day said...
That looks like a super fun lunch! I love packing lunches for my kiddos.
- August 26, 2013 at 11:40 AM
- Tiffany Schmidt said...
I love recipes for kids that are fun sounding and good for them. Thank you for this one!
- August 26, 2013 at 12:28 PM
- Unknown said...
Your girls are such good eaters! Looks so tasty. Would love to try with blueberries, too.
- August 26, 2013 at 12:46 PM
- Unknown said...
The polka dot sandwiches are such a clever idea. I know my granddaughter would love it. Thanks for sharing...
- August 26, 2013 at 2:01 PM
- slehan said...
Names of things are very important and calling this the polka dot sandwich makes it very fun.
- August 26, 2013 at 8:37 PM
- ReviewsSheRote said...
Such a cute sandwich--amost too cute to eat =D
- August 27, 2013 at 6:25 AM
- freddie said...
This sandwich sounds amazing. I can think of a lot of ways to make it too. Which is why it's a great sandwich. I have five grandchildren with five different tastes.
- August 27, 2013 at 5:01 PM
- Gala said...
I love the idea of the "Polka Dot Sandwich", healthy, tasty and fun - what not to like
- August 28, 2013 at 5:26 AM
- Unknown said...
Very creative! My youngest will love this; My oldest will ask me if I'm trying to poison her. I like that this recipe bends the rules for typical sandwich ingredients a little (raisins).
- August 29, 2013 at 10:04 PM
- Unknown said...
Very creative! My youngest will love this; My oldest will ask me if I'm trying to poison her. I like that this recipe bends the rules for typical sandwich ingredients a little (raisins).
- August 29, 2013 at 10:04 PM
- Unknown said...
Thank you for all your great ideas. Can't wait to try them.
- August 30, 2013 at 11:30 AM
- cheryl lister said...
Cute idea for a sandwich. For my own preference, though, I'd probably go with peanut butter in place of the cream cheese.
- August 31, 2013 at 2:29 PM
- Unknown said...
Thanks for the great lunch ideas - these look very nutritious.
- August 31, 2013 at 8:59 PM
- CSeppala said...
This sounds so good and very healthy too. I'm going to make this for my kids next week. Thanks for the recipe! : )
- September 1, 2013 at 1:39 PM
- Unknown said...
I've never tried cream cheese as a spread for sandwiches, but I'm sure it's delicious! I can just imagine the possible fruit that can be added along with bananas to the sandwich. I'm glad your girls enjoy the raisins and the bananas!
- September 4, 2013 at 3:32 PM
- Rose-Marie said...
this sounds good! One time a person from Turkey made me a sandwich of dates and cream cheese, it was awesome and after that I had it all the time! this recipe reminds me of it, and cream cheese in a sandwich should happen more often (and raisins, too!) or dates!
- September 6, 2013 at 11:32 AM
- Unknown said...
Really great ideas for lunches - may give them a try
- September 11, 2013 at 12:58 PM
- Anne said...
I don't have to pack lunches but that doesn't mean I don't have to MAKE lunches! I love the idea for this sandwich, even for adults. It's certainly different, and something I wouldn't have thought of myself. Thanks for the inspiration.
- September 16, 2013 at 9:53 AM
- DesiredOne said...
This is really neat and it looks good too. I never heard of putting raisins on a sandwich but I know kids would like it so why not.
- September 24, 2013 at 6:57 PM
- Unknown said...
my nephew would love that
- September 25, 2013 at 6:24 AM
- flairshare said...
I am not a big cream cheese person but it does sound good. My husband would probably love it though.
- October 11, 2013 at 1:24 PM
- Shannon said...
These sound like yummy sandwiches, thank you for sharing with us.
- April 24, 2014 at 10:38 PM


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A television host and an engineer from Germany have completed an almost 5,000 km (3,107 mile) journey across Australia in their Wind Explorer, a lightweight electric vehicle powered by the wind – not only through electricity-generating wind turbines but also using kites. The pioneering 18-day trip by Dirk Gion and Stefan Simmerer set three world records – the first time a continent has been crossed be a wind-powered vehicle, the longest overall distance covered by an exclusively wind-powered land vehicle, and the longest distance covered by such a vehicle in 36 hours.
The Wind Explorer is a prototype electric vehicle weighing 200 kg (441 lb) including its battery pack. It is constructed primarily of ROHACELL sandwich carbon fiber over an aluminum frame and sports bicycle tires to reduce rolling resistance. Whenever conditions permitted, the vehicle's 8 kWh lithium-ion battery pack was recharged overnight using a portable wind turbine that sits atop a six-meter (20 ft) telescopic bamboo mast – or via the grid when there was no wind. This allowed it to complete the 4,800 km (2,983 mile) journey on less than US$15 of electricity.
After setting out from Perth in Western Australia on January 21, 2011, and carrying out various tests, the Wind Explorer's real journey began on January 26 when it left Albany, the southernmost point of the Australian mainland on the southern coast of Western Australia. For the first 800 km (497 miles), the vehicle was powered entirely by electric power.
Then, taking advantage of strong winds on the Nullarbor Plain, Gion and Simmerer were at times able to use kites to propel the vehicle. While one piloted the open topped vehicle, the other held tight to a large steerable kite similar to a parasail. As can be seen from the video below, this method wasn't entirely smooth sailing but the vehicle was able to log hundreds of kilometers using kite power.
The trip took the Wind Explorer through the states of Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales, arriving in Sydney on February 14. On the trip the vehicle reached speeds of 80 km/h (50 mph) – not quite as fast as the Greenbird land yacht but not too shabby. January 31 proved to be the Wind Explorer's best daily performance when it covered 493 km (306 miles).
The journey is even more remarkable when you consider that Gion and Simmerer first came up with the idea for the trip last summer. Within a matter of weeks they were able to enlist the support of industry partners, most notably Essen-based Evonik Industries AG, which provided the materials for the Wind Explorer's lightweight bodywork and lithium-ion batteries.
Although they received a lot of flat tires and blew two motors, Gion and Simmerer hope their record-breaking journey in the Wind Explorer will prove that the technology is already available to produce self-sufficient and environmentally sound transport.


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Get More Referrals by Asking Build asking for referrals into your daily activities and see the results.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Ah, referrals. I can't think of a more powerful selling tool.
It's a fact: People would rather do business with people they know--or know of--than with strangers. When you're introduced to a prospect through a personal recommendation, that prospect has a vastly higher comfort level than, say, a buyer you find through cold calling. After all, few things are more reassuring than a positive endorsement from someone you know and trust.
So why is it that, while we all covet referrals, we don't pursue them as much as we should? I think it's largely a matter of developing good habits.
Change Your Thinking
Imagine your business as an infinite web of relationships. Every one of your business contacts has the potential to connect you to dozens of other contacts. The relationships are out there, but they'll likely remain out of reach unless you actively pursue them. It may never occur to your current contacts to broker an introduction. It's up to you to put the idea in their heads.
Don't feel sheepish about asking for referrals; there's nothing pushy or smarmy about it. People won't give you referrals unless you deserve them. In fact, getting a referral is the highest compliment you can receive. Let your customers know you prize referrals, which you'll earn by providing excellent quality products and services.
Make It a Habit
I know one entrepreneur who built a successful business almost solely on referrals. How'd he get so good at it? When he was an eager young sales apprentice, his manager trained him well. Every time he glanced at his watch, which he did often in his zeal to stay on schedule, it meant it was time to ask for a referral. Eventually, it became second nature.
Here are more easy ways to start developing good referral-building habits:
- When you begin working with a new customer, make referrals part of your initial agreement. "If I do a great job for you--and I will--you agree to give me X number of referrals." Chances are your customer will be impressed by your dedication and drive.
- Whenever a customer compliments you, respond with a thank you, quickly followed by a referral request. For example, "I'm so pleased you're happy with my work. Do you know anyone else who can benefit from my services?"
- Use every client meeting as an opportunity to collect referrals. To keep yourself on track, jot a reminder down in your meeting preparation notes. Make it one of your standard talking points.
- Set a weekly goal for yourself. Keep track of the number of referrals you ask for each day. You don't need to limit your requests to clients; you can also ask business associates, acquaintances and prospects.
- Make the most of every networking opportunity. Step out of your comfort zone at networking events and set a goal to talk to at least three new people. Plan in advance what you might say. We're all drawn to interesting, enthusiastic people.
- Always be specific when asking for a referral. Looking for high net worth individuals? Say so. Interested in midsize companies? Let them know. If you don't tell your contacts who your target customer is, you'll waste time pursuing leads you can't use.
Give and You Shall Receive
One of the most powerful ways to elicit referrals is to give them generously yourself. Whenever you have the opportunity to refer an associate or bring two contacts together, do so. And when you're attending the aforementioned networking event, make a point of introducing people to one another. Most people will appreciate the referral, and it may inspire them to respond in kind.
One last thought: Always thank someone who has given you a referral. Send them a note, keep them informed of your progress and maybe even treat them to lunch.
What's the close ratio on referral business, compared to other prospecting methods? I don't have a definitive answer for you, but I've seen estimates that range from 50 to 500 percent more. Those are big numbers. Whatever that number is for you, you can bet it's a whole lot higher than cold calling, advertising, web marketing or virtually any other sales technique you might employ.
The referral is the number-one tool in your tool kit. Get in the habit of reaching for it often--say, as often as you might glance at your watch.


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BillboardIn its 114th year, Billboard remains the world's premier weekly music publication and a diverse digital, events, brand, content and data licensing platform. Billboard publishes the most trusted charts and offers unrivaled reporting about the latest music, video, gaming, media, digital and mobile entertainment issues and trends. |
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agency AGVA Altho amusement parks arcade army August August 14 awards band Berlin Bill Billboard Blue Bond boys broadcasting Brown camera Capitol Jazzmen cent Chicago circus City Club coin machine Company Concessions continue dance Detroit director disks dough Eddy Howard equipment execs figure skating firm girl give gross Hollywood Hotel Industrial music industry Irving Berlin juke box July KFQD Kruse KSTP manager manufacturers ment merchandise Mills night niteries novelty operators ORCHESTRA outlets play plenty post-war production promotion radio station recently record Rink Rock-Ola RSROA Sammy Kaye Seeburg sell set-up singing skedded song Soundies sponsored spot station reps studio survey tele television theater thru tion Tommy Tucker trade Triumph Films tunes vocal week WJJD WRAW WRGB Wurlitzer York


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2014 Subaru Legacy 2.5i Limited Review By Carey Russ
2014 Subaru Legacy 2.5i Limited Review
After some major changes to its Legacy sedan lineup last year, including a new, more economical 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine, freshened styling, revised suspension setup, and a new Sport model, one would expect Subaru to coast comfortably into 2014.
One would be wrong. While changes to this year's Legacy aren't as obvious, they are important. The EyeSight driver-assistance system that debuted as an option for the top-level Limited model last year is now offered for the Premium trim level as well. EyeSight uses a Subaru-developed forward-facing stereo camera system and integrates Adaptive Cruise Control, Pre-Collision Braking, and Vehicle Lane-Departure Warning systems.
There's more. The Lineartronic� continuously-variable transmission (CVT), which fills the automatic role, gets adaptive control for improved performance and response. The Premium gets a number of interior upgrades. Aha� smartphone integration has been added to the navigation system that is available for upper trim levels. And of course there are the usual changes to wheel styles and colors.
So, useful changes, but the Legacy is still a Subaru, which means a horizontally-opposed engine -- a 173-horsepower 2.5-liter four for the 2.5i, 2.5i Premium, 2.5i Sport, and 2.5i Limited or a 256-hp 3.6-liter six-cylinder under the hood of the 3.6R Limited -- and full-time all-wheel drive (AWD) for all-season, all-weather traction. Done right, AWD gets the power to the ground better than front- or rear-wheel drive only, and Subaru knows how to do it right. Yes, there is a weight penalty, but with the compact Subaru system it's not much. And while the added weight and mechanical losses (from the additional drivetrain components) can decrease fuel economy, Subaru claims the Legacy 2.5i offers the best of any AWD car in its class with EPA estimates of 24 mpg city, 32 highway, and 27 overall. I saw 26 overall, with minimal highway driving, in the 2.5i Limited that is this week's test car.
What's not to like? With excellent traction, a properly-tuned suspension that combines comfort with a pleasant driving experience, good performance and mileage, and one of the best CVTs around, the latest Subaru Legacy should work well for anyone needing a sedan with year-round capability even in parts of the country where snow and ice are facts of life for half the year. It's smaller, more nimble, and far more economical than a 4x4 truck, and more capable than most crossovers. Ground clearance is car, not Outback, but with proper care good forest roads shouldn't present undue difficulty for summer camping trips. And AWD traction is as good in warm, dry weather as it is in cold and wet.
APPEARANCE: This is a sedan that's not afraid of looking like a sedan. A three-box design, its windshield and rear window are less-sloped than is the current norm, all the better for interior space and rear-seat headroom. The shape is familiar, as are the details. The chrome-trimmed hexagonal grille sits above a similarly-sized lower intake. Lines sculpted into the front bumper fascia give a bit of a performance look, hinting at racercar aero devices, as do the flared side sills and prominent fender flares. The headlights are L-shaped, and vee-section lines in the hood add visual interest. Chrome around the side windows adds a luxury touch. Rear styling is plainer and simpler than the front.
COMFORT: Open either of the Legacy's front doors at night, and lamps in the bottoms of the doors illuminate the ground. That's a courtesy usually found in more expensive vehicles. The instrument panel is as sculpted as the car's exterior, but form still follows function. Electroluminescent main instruments are bright and easily visible in all lighting, with odometer, information, and a relative fuel economy gauge between the tach and speedometer. Warnings from the EyeSight system are also displayed there. More useful information is displayed at the top center of the IP, near the base of the windshield. The center stack has the display screen for the audio, car systems and info, and navigation (if fitted) systems. It's a touchscreen, with hard buttons for major functions, and is reasonably self-explanatory. The climate system has its own controls, it is not integrated into the touchscreen.
At Limited level, seating surfaces are leather, with power adjustment and heat in front. Front seat comfort is very good, and the rear has a comfortable back angle and plenty of room for the Legacy's size. The steering wheel has a leather rim, and manual tilt and reach adjustability. Audio, cruise, and information system controls are on the front the horizontal spokes, with (virtual) shift paddles on the rear. The audio system has AM, FM, and XM/Sirius radio, a CD slot, with a jack and USB port in the console box with a power point. Interior storage includes a locking glovebox, the console box, door pockets with bottle holders in all doors, and small pockets for rear passengers on the backs of the front seats. The trunk is usefully large, with hydraulic struts preventing accidental luggage crunches and a bit of hidden storage and a space-saver spare under the load floor. The rear seat folds 60/40 when additional carrying capacity is needed.
SAFETY: Like all Subarus, the 2014 Legacy uses the "Ring-Shaped Reinforcement" unibody structure for sturdy, rigid construction and maximum passenger safety. A full complement of airbags and the Vehicle Dynamics Control (VDC) stability and traction control system plus strong antilock brakes add further safety. For the ultimate in protection, the EyeSight system combines adaptive cruise control, pre-collision braking, and lane-departure warning systems to alert the driver to possible danger. It does sometimes show false positives -- I doubt that the tree on the outside of the corner on a local road is going anywhere -- but so do other similar systems. It did allow the Legacy (and Outback) to be the only vehicles to get the highest score in IIHS to get a "Superior" rating and be rated "Top Safety Pick +".
RIDE AND HANDLING: The Legacy Limited is closer to entry-luxury than sport in specification, so don't expect WRX-level cornering ability. Its fully-independent MacPherson strut/double-wishbone suspension is tuned for luxury in the contemporary international manner, so it is still quite capable, and is an enjoyable car to drive on the backroads. The interior is quieter than expected, which improves the highway experience. Brakes are very good, with twin-piston calipers gripping the front discs and regular single-piston calipers at the rear. The "Active Torque Split" AWD system is transparent in operation. It uses an electronically-controlled continuously-variable transfer clutch to actively distribute power between the front and rear axles.
PERFORMANCE: The 2.5-liter twincam boxer four makes 173 horsepower (at 5600 rpm) and 174 lb-ft of torque, with a nice broad, strong torque curve and plenty of low-rpm grunt. Which is what works in everyday life. Upgrades to the Lineartronic CVT keep it in the sweet spot more, and even though it is programmed for fuel economy I found that it worked quite well in D even on tight and hilly roads. Better drive out of corners was easily available by using the shift paddles, but never an absolute necessity. Fuel economy is good for a medium-sized AWD car, with mid-20s around town and low 30s on the highway. My 26 mpg average reflected my aversion to highway travel.
CONCLUSIONS: The 2014 Legacy 2.5i Limited show Subaru's luxury side, in a very Subaru manner.
2014 Subaru Legacy 2.5i Limited
Base Price $ 26,195 Price As Tested $ 31,030 Engine Type DOHC aluminum alloy 16-valve horizontally-opposed 4-cylinder Engine Size 2.5 liters / 152 cu. in. Horsepower 173 @ 5600 rpm Torque (lb-ft) 174 @ 4100 rpm Transmission electronically-controlled CVT Wheelbase / Length 108.3 in. / 187.2 in. Curb Weight 3424 lbs. Pounds Per Horsepower 19.8 Fuel Capacity 18.5 gal. Fuel Requirement 87 octane regular unleaded gasoline Tires P215/50R17 91V m+s Bridgestone Turanza Brakes, front/rear vented disc / solid disc, ABS, EBD, BA, Brake Override standard Suspension, front/rear independent MacPherson strut / independent double wishbone Drivetrain longitudinal front engine, full-time all-wheel drive PERFORMANCE EPA Fuel Economy - miles per gallon city / highway / observed 24 / 32 / 26 0 to 60 mph 8.6 sec OPTIONS AND CHARGES Option Package 43 -- includes: Moonroof Package -- includes: power moonroof, rear-vision camera, auto-dimming rearview mirror with Homelink Navigation System with Aha Infotainment -- includes: SiriusXM NavTraffic with 4-month free trial, voice-activated control EyeSight Driver Assist System -- includes: Pre-Collision Braking System, Pre-Collision Throttle Management System, Lane-Departure Warning and Lane-Sway Warning, Adaptive Cruise Control Total Package Price $ 4, 040 Destination Charge $ 795


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"There's nothing worse than a monster who thinks he's right with God."
~Malcom Reynolds, captain of the cargo ship Serenity
I have spent a great deal of my life fighting monsters. Not the fun monsters that Larry Correia writes about, but the tawdry, dreary reality of men engaged in the ten thousand ways of being inhumane to other men.
I have seen the monsters borne of greed; of madness; and those borne out of lust for power over others.
Of all the monsters I've had dealings with over the last five decades, the absolute worst are the fanatics — those monsters who think they're right with God.
Fanatics are people who think that their actions are blessed and/or required by a Higher Power (ideology, religion, politics, you name it); and are scary for a lot of reasons, but the two primary are:
1) Not only are their consciences clean no matter the evil they do, but there's usually a group of like-minded people (mob, Politburo, cult, congregation, cell, whathaveyou) providing moral support, validation, hero worship, and all of the other fun stuff that group dynamics handles; and
2) Mission Creep. Defined as: "The expansion of a mission or task beyond its original goals, often after initial successes", in this context mission creep refers to the nasty habit that fanatics have of always expanding their list of "Heretics, Heathens, Idolaters, And Other What Deserve Our Righteous Wrath". Yes, they always expand this list — unless and until someone (metaphorically-speaking) holds their little heads under water until the bubbling stops.
In Africa and the Middle East, I witnessed first-hand the damage that fanatics can do; along with the snow-white consciences of those who committed some of the worst atrocities ever seen by the gods in the name of ideology, or religion, or politics.
Here in the United States — other than a brief fanatic embuggerance during the 1930s and 1940s — we don't have a lot of experience with the little bugsnipes. Here when fanatics move up to their post-doctoral studies, the Rule of Law or society in general plays Whack-A-Mole with them, and then we trundle on our merry way.
In the last score of years or so, I'm starting to worry that this is no longer the case — and this concerns me, although probably not in the way that the average Gentle Reader imagines.
The company that my father worked for had a policy of hiring most of their employees from amongst the ranks of war veterans. The CEO was of the opinion that someone who had not only already been overseas, but had been shot at overseas, could probably handle anything West Africa could throw at them.
An educated tribesman from the northern part of the country — we'll call him "Abdul" — got hisself bitten by the Religion Bug, came into our neck of the jungle, and set about bringing Allah to the fuzzy-wuzzies. Started out ok — if a little enthusiastic — built up a group of worshippers sycophants, did Some Good.
However, things started getting all fire-and-brimstone, and next thing we know, some poor lad gets immolated for recreational friction with an unsanctioned partner after being singled out by Our Wee Fanatic.
Things get all hot and bothered for a bit, but it's all yelling and chest-pounding, and things settle down. Two weeks later, Abdul the Moderately Rabid goes a-wandering in the jungle at night and winds up as Kittie Kibble.
The local elders put a slam order on the leopard, call Da', and I go out with him to do the deed. We start at the body, track the man-eater down, Da' hoses him with a full magazine of 12 bore (Da' REALLY hated leopards), and that was the end of it.
Except, at the body, I realized that Abdul the Moderately Rabid had been done in with an extremely sharp knife run into his neck from the side and punched out the front. All that the leopard did was clean up the carrion.
That's what I'm worried about.
There are a whole bunch of 50-60 year-olds in the United States who fought the Cold War in dark alleys, midnight ports, and moonlit rooftops with knives, brass knuckles, and silenced pistols.
There are a whole bunch of 30-40 year-olds in the United States who fought vicious CQC battles in places like Mogadishu, Tora Bora, Fallujah, Najaf, and Mazar E Sharif.
There are 20-somethings from places like Compton, El Paso, Chicago, Detroit, Tiajuana, "the barrio", "the ghetto", and "the heights" who have stainless-steel teeth and thousand yard stares.
There are uncounted numbers of immigrants who have come here from war-torn hell-holes — and brought the skills and attitudes that enabled them to survive along.
This is what I'm worried about.
I'm worried that when Biff the Hygienically-Challenged and his Coterie of Fanatics decide that sucker-punching neo-nazis just isn't enough and mission creep themselves into Proper Fanatical Stupidity, that some truly scary people are going to start whacking and stacking in response.
I don't want to find myself standing over what's left of a coyote attack and suddenly realizing that unless coyotes are carrying knives, some pipe-hitter has just declared war upon other Americans.
Y'all should be worried about this, too.


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Stormwater Advisory Commission
From Carrboro Vision 2020
"Carrboro should be proactive in managing its stormwater, promoting active maintenance of facilities, reducing impacts of increased impervious surface, and minimizing impacts on waterways. Respect for and protection of the natural environment should be integrated into the Town's policies as a high priority in enriching the quality of life."
- The SWAC typically meets on the second Thursday at 6:30 pm.
Agendas & Minutes
Agendas are prepared prior to the meeting, minutes are available following approval.
Most Recent Agenda (PDF) | All Agendas and Minutes
The Stormwater Advisory Commission will consist of 7 members. Staff support will be provided by the Public Works Department.
Duties & Responsibilities
From Section 3-24.15 of the Town Code:
The purpose of the Carrboro Stormwater Advisory Commission is as follows:
(1) To investigate and advise the Town Council on policies, ordinances, best management practices, and administrative procedures regarding stormwater management;
(2) To investigate, review and make recommendations to the Town Council for new or revised policies regarding the Town's Stormwater Management Utility and Stormwater Management Enterprise Fund;
(3) To investigate, review and make recommendations to the Town Council concerning new or revised land use ordinance provisions related to stormwater management;
(4) To review the Town's Stormwater Management Program and Plan, stormwater compliance activities, and other stormwater related plans, and make recommendations to prioritize or adjust activities;
(5) To investigate and provide recommendations regarding stormwater runoff for new development and re-development projects when requested by the Board or staff;
(6) To review and approve annual (and other) staff reports to the Town Council regarding the Town's stormwater management duties; and
(7) To fulfill the Town's requirements under its NPDES Phase II stormwater permit for citizens' input of stormwater management activities; and
(8) Organize subcommittees concerning specific topics or issues related to stormwater management as needed or as requested by Town Staff.


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Kurt Angle -- Arrested for DWI
Kurt Angle Arrested for DWI
Wrestling legend Kurt Angle was arrested early this morning on charges of driving under the influence ... TMZ has learned.
Law enforcement tells TMZ ... Angle's car was spotted by another driver ... swerving between lanes on I-66. Angle was busted by Virginia State Troopers, who responded to the call, and taken to Warren County Jail.
He posted $2,000 bond and was released at 3:31 AM.
Angle won the gold medal in wrestling at the 1996 Olympics before turning to professional wrestling. He made his name in the WWE and is currently under contract with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.


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"For his pioneering use of modern computational tools for the calculation of the electronic, vibrational and optical properties of amorphous, crystalline and photonic bandgap materials, including their surfaces and defects, and for his excellence in lecturing, writing and training students in these areas."
Dr. Joannopoulos received his BA degree and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1968 and 1974 respectively. He joined the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1974 where he is currently Professor of Physics.
His research efforts have been in theoretical condensed matter physics, and he is responsible for the development of numerous calculational schemes and techniques for the study of complex solid systems. His interests span a wide range of topics including the electronic and vibrational structure of crystalline and amorphous bulk solids, their surfaces, interfaces, and defects; localization in disordered systems; phase transitions and critical phenomena; and most recently, the theory of photonic bandgap crystals. He is author or co-author of more than 275 journal articles and one textbook, and holds six US patents.
Dr. Joannopoulos is a member of the AAAS, Materials Research Society, Fellow of the APS, Alfred P. Sloan Fellow, John S. Guggenheim Fellow, recipient of the School of Science Graduate Teaching Award, the William Buechner Teaching Prize and holds the Francis Wright Davis Chair of Professor of Physics.


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Below is a list of the albums that are releasing/have released over the past fortnight; which albums are you thinking of listening to and purchasing? Which albums are you going to recommend to others and which would you bypass? Let us know in the comments below.
Continue reading Albums Releasing This Fortnight (5th – 18th July 2015)


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This post originally ran about three years ago. This year, our house will be launching the following into an unsuspecting world: Harry Potter, Aphrodite, a cat, the grim reaper, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, a Pink Mummy Ghost (this is a costume which started off weird and gets more confusing each year), Ming Ming, and a confused and angry baby.
You can see by the preponderance of trademarked characters that, in the three years since I wrote this piece, my give-a-damn has broken.
Oh, Halloween!
If you are lucky enough to slide unharmed through the Scylla and Charybdis of the Wiccans' Samhain and decent people's All Saint's Day, you will probably be thinking about Halloween costumes for your kids.
I started having kids pretty young, so I went directly from wearing costumes myself to making costumes for my kids. The type of costume changed, of course. When you're a 19-year-old pseudo intellectual, it seems hilarious to dress up as Aristotle's Incontinent Man; but for your kids, you really need to reign in the originality. It's less scarring that way.
The more insane daily life is, the more prone I am to wildly ambitious homemade costume ideas. If I'm pregnant, teaching several kids at home, buying a new house, going to law school, and launching an organic chinchilla farm, that's when it seems like a good idea to whip up a batch of papier-mache. How hard could it really be to dress any reasonably robust six-year-old as an Elizabethan headless horseman, with false legs, of course, so it looks like he's really riding on the golden Sphinx part, when he's actually walking? If I could get a little cooperation around here, I could get something done for a change.
But my goal in these days of relative calm (I'm not pregnant, we're unpacked and not packing, no one has a new job, and all the pets are dead) is to dress the kids in such a way that it won't make them cry.
This is not as easy as it sounds, when you have kids who tend to cry when you do exactly what they specifically asked for, several times, with witnesses.
Also working against me is one three-year-old boy who gets angry when he's having fun. You let him wear a cape and stay up late, and surround him with people who can't believe how adorable he is, and who want to give him lots of candy . . . and it really rubs him the wrong way. This is the same kid who steps outside into the golden sunshine, takes a look at the butterflies wafting over the heads of gentle daisies, and yells at the top of his lungs, "IT IS NOT A BOOTIFUL DAY!"
But my biggest handicap is, as usual, myself. I know it's supposed to be a kids' holiday, and I genuinely want the little termites to be happy. But I'm sick. I have a disease which makes it seem important to stay up until dawn getting the tin foil details of Princess Leia's belt exactly right, even though I know darn well that it's going to be dark out, and no one without infrared vision could notice any flaw of authenticity, and no one with or without infrared vision would care.
Well, it's a holiday, and that means it has to be someone's turn to ruin things — might as well be me. But I'll tell you the thing I really enjoy about Halloween: at least it's not a religious holiday — I mean, Halloween as a "boo, eek, Kit-kat and Smartees, oh-how-cute" day, setting aside the issue of saints and souls and praying and such, which is for a different day.
Halloween is not like Christmas, or Easter, or Thanksgiving — you're not supposed to be making sure your kids aren't missing the deeper meaning of it all, and not being too materialistic, and enjoying happy times with your family, while simultaneously performing the back-breaking labor of organizing a pleasant day.
So when I tear around the house with a hot glue gun, insisting that the toddler can make supper for herself because I'm busy, dammit . . . it's just Halloween! I may be acting like a jerk, but at least it's not blasphemy.


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For Home or Small/Youth Groups
Jimi Cravity is a man whose heart claims dual citizenship in heaven and on earth. His vision of heaven is relevant, his conception – visceral and his longing for it – infectious. For Jimi, Heaven is real, it is now, and it changes everything.
Such is the heartbeat of his debut EP from sixstepsrecords, aptly titled, Heaven. In seven songs, he invites us to hear the hope that has pulled him through darkness into the blinding light of an eternal promise. It's a hope that is poignant, compelling and, to say the least, hard-won.
In 2013, his two-and-a-half year old son, Britain, was diagnosed with liver cancer. Within a few short months, Britain went to heaven.
"I was heartbroken and full of grief, but it never felt like God was distant or far off. It seemed like He was in the room with me throughout all of it." Jimi recalls.
Even today, as he remembers moments in the hospital spent praying for healing, he also recalls moments of worship, windows of beauty and inspired creativity. In the midst of one of the most searing types of loss a person can experience, God was continuing to cultivate the talents He had instilled within Jimi his entire life. It was an unexpected season of inspiration, manifest in songs that would eventually make their way onto the Heaven EP. Jimi was keenly aware of God's hand upon his heart and the work of beauty He was already crafting from the ashes.
In his early twenties, he signed his first publishing deal, with Bu Vision/Universal Music Publishing Group. Soon thereafter, his music made its way into the hands of artists like Ludacris and Usher. It was when he created his own project, a self-titled EP, that he began to solidify his own identity as an artist. The EP was followed by a second project after catching the attention of several music industry heavy-hitters, including acclaimed producer, Sham, whose credits include Rihanna, Kanye West and JayZ, among others.
Cravity had found a home at Passion City Church in Atlanta, pastored by Louie and Shelley Giglio. Inspired by their leadership, he served on the production team — hauling gear, cables and equipment — with no mention of his songwriting abilities or artist career. Eventually he began to lead worship there and has since been featured at Passion Conferences, the annual student gatherings led by Louie and Shelley Giglio. Jimi's single, "Surrender," made its way onto Passion's 2016 worship album, Salvation's Tide is Rising. In time, he was signed to Capitol Christian Music Group joint venture label sixstepsrecords, joining label mates Crowder, Matt Redman, and Passion.
Jimi, along with producer Sham, began working on songs — pushing, molding and challenging them to take on a form accessible and attractive to everyone—believers and non-believers.
Jimi's worship-oriented writing set on different musical pallets was the guiding design in creating music to connect with a broad scope of people. Track after track, the project takes familiar ideas — surrender, belief, worship — and turns them into morsels of pop-rock that doesn't allow the listener to walkaway unaffected.
The songs not only pull the listener in sonically; they make listeners ask questions… to examine their own understanding of suffering and grace.
Heaven is real. Heaven is now. Heaven changes everything.
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Three organizations representing America's research universities today launched a website that aims to inform policymakers and the public of the impact that the upcoming budget sequester would have on federal funding for university research. The organizations – the Association of American Universities (AAU), the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) and The Science Coalition (TSC) – urge Congressional leaders and the President to act quickly to develop a comprehensive, balanced solution to America's fiscal crisis that avoids steep cuts to scientific research, which pays a substantial return on investment in the form of job creation, workforce development and economic growth.
Collectively, the three sponsoring organizations represent more than 200 of the country's leading academic research institutions. Their website, www.ScienceWorksForUS.org, provides data on the impact that sequestration – the across-the-board spending cut scheduled to take effect on Jan. 2, 2013 – is likely to have next year on academic research in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. While the estimated reduction in research funding ranges from the hundreds of millions of dollars for large, research-intensive states to less than $10 million for smaller states, every state will experience a significant impact given the catalytic effect research universities have on local and state economies. The website also provides numerous examples of the essential role that federally funded university research plays in today's economy and the impact it has on society at large.
"Federal funding for research represents only 2 percent of the total federal budget, but it pays enormous dividends," said Philip DiStefano, Chancellor of the University of Colorado Boulder, which is a member of AAU, APLU and TSC. "The numbers might not look huge, but the potential negative impact of reduced research on the economy would have long-lasting effects. That is because basic scientific research produces the discoveries that lead to countless treatments and cures that improve health, provide for our energy needs, fuel the new technologies that spark businesses and economic growth, improve our security, and help us better understand the world around us. "
Federal funding for research is currently at the lowest level in the past decade in real dollars. The caps on discretionary spending mandated by the Budget Control Act (BCA) of 2011 will likely further depress research funding over the next decade. And sequestration requires additional cuts in federal spending on research and development – beyond those that will result from the BCA spending caps – of more than $12 billion in 2013 and nearly $95 billion over the life of the sequester. "It is essential that America get itself on a sustainable financial path that reduces deficits and makes room for needed investments in the country's future," said Sally Mason, president of the University of Iowa and another AAU, APLU, TSC member. "We urge Congress and the President to work together now to enact a long-term plan to reduce budget deficits, prevent the arbitrary and harmful cuts of sequestration, and provide for continued investments in scientific research that will help build a better America."
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Affirmative Action Backfires
Have racial preferences reduced the number of black lawyers?
Three years ago, UCLA law professor Richard Sander published an explosive, fact-based study of the consequences of affirmative action in American law schools in the Stanford Law Review. Most of his findings were grim, and they caused dismay among many of the champions of affirmative action--and indeed, among those who were not.
Easily the most startling conclusion of his research: Mr. Sander calculated that there are fewer black attorneys today than there would have been if law schools had practiced color-blind admissions--about 7.9% fewer by his reckoning. He identified the culprit as the practice of admitting minority students to schools for which they are inadequately prepared. In essence, they have been "matched" to the wrong school.
No one claims the findings in Mr. Sander's study, "A Systemic Analysis of Affirmative Action in American Law Schools," are the last word on the subject. Although so far his work has held up to scrutiny at least as well as that of his critics, all fair-minded scholars agree that more research is necessary before the "mismatch thesis" can be definitively accepted or rejected.
Unfortunately, fair-minded scholars are hard to come by when the issue is affirmative action. Some of the same people who argue Mr. Sander's data are inconclusive are now actively trying to prevent him from conducting follow-up research that might yield definitive answers. If racial preferences really are causing more harm than good, they apparently don't want you--or anyone else--to know.
Take William Kidder, a
Sadly, the State Bar's Committee of Bar Examiners caved under the pressure. The committee members didn't formally explain their decision to deny Mr. Sander's request for these data (in which no names would be disclosed), but the root cause is clear: Over the last 40 years, many distinguished citizens--university presidents, judges, philanthropists and other leaders--have built their reputations on their support for race-based admissions. Ordinary citizens have found secure jobs as part of the resulting diversity bureaucracy.
If the policy is not working, they, too, don't want anyone to know. ...
As a result, there is now a serious gap in academic credentials between minority and non-minority law students across the pecking order, with the average black student's academic index more than two standard deviations below that of his average white classmate.
Not surprisingly, such a gap leads to problems. Students who attend schools where their academic credentials are substantially below those of their fellow students tend to perform poorly.
The reason is simple: While some students will outperform their entering academic credentials, just as some students will underperform theirs, most students will perform in the range that their academic credentials predict. As a result, in elite law schools, 51.6% of black students had first-year grade point averages in the bottom 10% of their class as opposed to only 5.6% of white students. Nearly identical performance gaps existed at law schools at all levels. This much is uncontroversial.
Supporters of race-based admissions argue that, despite the likelihood of poor grades, minority students are still better off accepting the benefit of a preference and graduating from a more prestigious school. But Mr. Sander's research suggests that just the opposite may be true--that law students, no matter what their race, may learn less, not more, when they enroll in schools for which they are not academically prepared. Students who could have performed well at less competitive schools may end up lost and demoralized. As a result, they may fail the bar.
Specifically, Mr. Sander found that when black and white students with similar academic credentials compete against each other at the same school, they earn about the same grades. Similarly, when black and white students with similar grades from the same tier law school take the bar examination, they pass at about the same rate.
Yet, paradoxically, black students as a whole have dramatically lower bar passage rates than white students with similar credentials. Something is wrong.
The Sander study argued that the most plausible explanation is that, as a result of affirmative action, black and white students with similar credentials are not attending the same schools. The white students are more likely to be attending a school that takes things a little more slowly and spends more time on matters that are covered on the bar exam. They are learning, while their minority peers are struggling at more elite schools.
Mr. Sander calculated that if law schools were to use color-blind admissions policies, fewer black law students would be admitted to law schools (3,182 students instead of 3,706), but since those who were admitted would be attending schools where they have a substantial likelihood of doing well, fewer would fail or drop out (403 vs. 670). In the end, more would pass the bar on their first try (1,859 vs. 1,567) and more would eventually pass the bar (2,150 vs. 1,981) than under the current system of race preferences. Obviously, these figures are just approximations, but they are troubling nonetheless.
Mr. Sander has his critics--some thoughtful, some just strident--but so far none has offered a plausible alternative explanation for the data. Of course, Mr. Sander doesn't need to be proven 100% correct for his research to be devastating news for affirmative-action supporters.
Suppose the consequences of race-based admissions turn out to be a wash--neither increasing nor decreasing the number of minority attorneys. In that case, few people would think it worth the costs, not least among them the human costs that result from the failure of the supposed beneficiaries to graduate and pass the bar.
Under current practices, only 45% of blacks who enter law school pass the bar on their first attempt as opposed to over 78% of whites. Even after multiple tries, only 57% of blacks succeed. The rest are often saddled with student debt, routinely running as high as $160,000, not counting undergraduate debt. How great an increase in the number of black attorneys is needed to justify these costs?
A friend of mine wasted a decade of his life going to law school and working as a hospital orderly while flunking the bar exam nine or ten times before giving up. If he'd become a salesman out of college, he might have been making six figures by then.
For blacks, the 43% of black law students who never pass the bar exam represent a well-above average group who could have used their 20s to do something more productive.
Speaking of academic affirmative action, a reader writes regarding Barack Obama's fluctuating personality:
I would be willing to bet a small amount of money that Obama's book was an outgrowth of his college and grad school admissions essays rather than a reflection of reality and hence of cognitive issues. However, I also agree that if you do not take into consideration the fascinating warping of reality that the college admissions process engenders, he might seem like a basket case.
That makes a lot of sense. That reminds me of an earlier reader's comment on Obama's book:
Everyone who gets into
They have to have the story of teen angst, commitment to healing the world, good deeds, and preferably a healthy dose of some sort of conflict in the real world that gave them some special insight into human nature that makes them unique and diverse. Not TOO conflicted, however, since a felony conviction will prevent you from becoming a lawyer.
In my class, a year after Obama arrived, there was The Photojournalist from
Obama's autobiography is a book-length
Having expanded his Rap with more local color to make his book, all he has done is dig himself a deeper hole of deceit. Harvard won't fact-check student admission essays, but reporters will.
Let's try to re-engineer the getting into the Ivy League process from Obama's point of view. He wants to get into all these fancy colleges with affirmative action programs, such as Occidental,
Although everybody talks about diversity in general all the time, the only kind of diversity that really interests white people are blacks. Look at the faltering Presidential campaign of Bill Richardson. He's a governor, he has a resume a lot like the first George W. Bush's, and he's 3/4ths Mexican (the other 1/4th is upper crust WASP) and grew up in Mexico City for the first 13 years of his life. And nobody in the media cares because he's not black like Obama.
If Obama was growing up today, he'd figure out that although the elite colleges talk about diversity as if they mean they're lifting up out of the ghettoes the great-great-grandchildren of the slaves, the truth is that they've pretty much given up on urban African-American males who aren't athletes, as -- as Harvard's Jamaican and Jewish Lani Guinier (who herself looks like the late Gilda Radner's half-sister) has documented. Ivy Leagues blacks are increasingly West Indian or African or European or mixed race or all of the above. For example, when
But back then, Obama might well have worried that he wasn't really "black" enough to impress the admissions committees. First, his Mom was white. Second, his Dad wasn't the descendent of slaves, he was the son of a prosperous Kenyan landowner. Third, his Dad abandoned him as an infant and he was brought up by white relatives and a little bit by an Indonesian guy. (Now, you might think that
So, you could imagine the thoughts going through his head when sat down to write his
On the other hand, he really did walk the black activist walk, moving to
My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer


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Albrecht von Haller
Our editors will review what you've submitted and determine whether to revise the article.
- Born:
- Oct. 16, 1708, Bern
- Died:
- Dec. 12, 1777, Bern (aged 69)
- Notable Works:
- "Elements of Human Physiology"
- Subjects Of Study:
- plant
- irritability
- muscle
- nerve
- taxonomy
Albrecht von Haller (born Oct. 16, 1708, Bern—died Dec. 12, 1777, Bern) Swiss biologist, the father of experimental physiology, who made prolific contributions to physiology, anatomy, botany, embryology, poetry, and scientific bibliography.
At the University of Göttingen (1736–53), where he served as professor of medicine, anatomy, surgery, and botany, Haller undertook the exhaustive biological experimentation that was to make his encyclopaedic Elementa Physiologiae Corporis Humani (8 vol., 1757–66; "Physiological Elements of the Human Body") a landmark in medical history. Because of his impressive accomplishments at the newly formed university, the scientific world was shocked when he suddenly resigned his chair to return to Bern (1753–77), where he continued his research, maintained a private medical practice, and completed an enormous number of written works.
Haller was the first to recognize the mechanism of respiration and the autonomous function of the heart; he discovered that bile helps to digest fats, and he wrote original descriptions of embryonic development. He also summarized anatomical studies of the genital organs, the brain, and the cardiovascular system. Most important were his contributions to the understanding of nerve and muscle activity. On the basis of 567 experiments (190 were performed by him) Haller was able to show that irritability is a specific property of muscle—a slight stimulus applied directly to a muscle causes a sharp contraction. The experiments also showed that sensibility is a specific property of nerves—a stimulus applied to a nerve does not change the nerve perceptibly but causes the contraction of the muscle connected to it, implying that the nerves carry impulses that produce sensation. Although the English physician Francis Glisson had discussed tissue irritability a century earlier, Haller's complete scientific delineation of nerve and muscle action laid the foundations for the advent of modern neurology.
Toward the end of his life, he devoted much of his time to the cataloging of scientific literature. His Bibliothecae Medicinae Practicae, 4 vol. (1776–88) lists 52,000 publications on anatomy, botany, surgery, and medicine. In a study on Swiss vegetation he developed a system of botanical classification considered more logical than that of his Swedish colleague Carolus Linnaeus, known as the father of modern taxonomy. Haller was also an accomplished poet, and his glorification of the mountains ("Die Alpen"; 1732) helped bring a sense of the awareness of natural wonders to German poetry.


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If anyone still doubted that this administration's foreign policy would bring any kind of change, this week's debate on Afghanistan should remove all doubt. The President's stated justifications for sending more troops to Afghanistan and escalating war amount to little more than recycling all the false reasons we began the conflict. It is so discouraging to see this coming from our new leadership, when the people were hoping for peace. New polls show that 49 percent of the people favor minding our own business on the world stage, up from 30 percent in 2002. Perpetual war is not solving anything. Indeed continually seeking out monsters to destroy abroad only threatens our security here at home as international resentment against us builds. The people understand this and are becoming increasingly frustrated at not being heard by the decision-makers. The leaders say some things the people want to hear, but change never comes.
One has to ask, if the people who elected these leaders so obviously do not want these wars, who does? Eisenhower warned of the increasing power and influence of the military industrial complex and it seems his worst fears have come true. He believed in a strong national defense, as do I, but warned that the building up of permanent military and weapons industries could prove dangerous if their influence got out of hand. After all, if you make your money on war, peace does you no good. With trillions of dollars at stake, there is tremendous incentive to keep the decision makers fearful of every threat in the world, real or imagined, present or future, no matter how ridiculous and far-fetched. The Bush Doctrine demonstrates how very successful the war lobby was philosophically with the last administration. And they are succeeding just as well with this one, in spite of having the so-called "peace candidate" in office.
We now find ourselves in another foreign policy quagmire with little hope of victory, and not even a definition of victory. Eisenhower said that only an alert and informed electorate could keep these war racketeering pressures at bay. He was right, and the key is for the people to ensure that their elected leaders follow the Constitution. The Constitution requires a declaration of war by Congress in order to legitimately go to war. Bypassing this critical step makes it far too easy to waste resources on nebulous and never-ending conflicts. Without clear goals, the conflicts last forever and drain the country of blood and treasure. The drafters of the Constitution gave Congress the power to declare war precisely because they feared allowing the executive unfettered discretion in military affairs. They understood that making it easy for leaders to wage foreign wars would threaten domestic liberties.
Responses to attacks on our soil should be swift and brief. Wars we fight should always be defensive, clearly defined and Constitutional. The Bush Doctrine of targeting potential enemies before they do anything to us is dangerously vague and easily abused. There is nothing left to win in Afghanistan and everything to lose. Today's military actions are yet another futile exercise in nation building and have nothing to do with our nation's security, or with 9/11. Most experts agree that Bin Laden and anyone remotely connected to 9/11 left Afghanistan long ago, but our troops remain. The pressures of the war racketeers need to be put in check before we are brought to our knees by them. Unfortunately, it will require a mighty effort by the people to get the leadership to finally listen.


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I Know Who Killed Me (2007) I Know Who Killed Me
Directed by
Bonnie Aarons, Lindsay Lohan, Michael Adler, Julia Ormond, Garcelle Beauvais, Neal McDonough, Art Bell, Stacy Daniel, Michael Esparza, David Figlioli, Amy Fuehrer, Jane Galloway Heitz, Spencer Garrett, Brian Geraghty, Cornelia Guest
Aubrey Fleming is a regular high school student with friends and family. One night, she unexpectedly disappears. Two weeks later she is found unconscious in the middle of the woods. When spoken to, her loved ones realize she has forgotten her identity and the personality living in her body is Dakota Moss, a character that Aubrey created in one of her stories for an English assignment. Dakota denies ever being Aubrey knowing that they look identical. Now, Dakota must try to unravel the mystery of how her and Aubrey co-exist and find out who abducted Aubrey that night.
- Es zinu, kurš mani nogalināja
- Я знаю, кто убил меня


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These days, it's fairly easy to find a PCI Express-based SSD to transform one's desktop — Angelbird , Fusion-io , Micron and ASUS will sell you one, just to name a few. That said, the last of those three has just revealed a new entrant that will certainly catch the eye of many, as the RAIDR Express claims to be the first PCI-e SSD to be compatible with both legacy and UEFI BIOS. The so-called DuoMode feature is joined by 240GB of storage space, sequential 830MB/s read and 810MB/s write speeds and a reported 620, 000 hours mean time between failure (MTBF). You'll also find the latest LSI SandForce controller, Toshiba-built 19nm MLC flash, and 100, 000 4K read/write input/output operations per second (IOPS). The bundled RAMDisk utility allows users to dedicate up to 80 percent of a computer's available RAM for use as a high-speed virtual drive, and if you needed any further proof that it's fast, look no further than in the video after the break. Curiously, ASUS isn't talking pricing just yet, but it should start shipping in the very near future. Filed under: Gaming , Storage , ASUS Comments Via: PC Perspective , Engadget Japanese Source: ASUS
See the original article here:
ASUS' RAIDR Express PCI-e SSD is compatible with both legacy and UEFI BIOS


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MercuryServer's community forums and DJ database have everything you need to discover Electronic Dance Music. Subscribe to your favorites and discuss them in our community to keep up to date on their latest news and downloads.
Create your personal MercuryServer portal by subscribing to your favorite DJs. Watch MercuryServer adapt to your tastes as your subscriptions grow, delivering new downloads and recommended artists straight to your personal portal.


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The new film Life of Pi tells the story of a teenage Indian boy who survives a shipwreck, only to find himself in another ordeal: stranded on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger. The movie is based on the best-selling novel of the same name, and is being mentioned as an Oscar contender by many critics.
Pi is the son of zookeepers from India. When the family sells their zoo, they take the animals with them aboard a ship bound for Canada, where they plan to start a new life. But after a terrible storm sinks the ship, Pi is the sole human survivor. He barely scrambles onto a lifeboat with a tiger and other animals. There are many moments when Pi is in danger of losing his life — and his mind.
An Accidental Star
Thousands of young men from India auditioned for the lead role, and Sharma won it without any acting experience; as a matter of fact, he won it without really trying. In an interview with Tell Me More host Michel Martin, Sharma says that he went to the audition to support his brother, not to audition himself.
"The casting director in my city was also my brother's drama theater teacher, and he knew my family. I was sitting on the couch waiting for my brother to get done, and he comes up to me and he said, 'You know what, Suraj? You're like a teenage Indian boy. You should try as well.' And I said, 'Fine, yeah. I might as well.' And I did."
Sink Or Swim
Critics say that the film's shipwreck scene rivals the spectacle and terror of the 1997 blockbuster Titanic. "We were on this huge multiton vessel on this huge metallic, like mechanical hand, being thrown around," says Sharma. "Yeah, it was pretty scary."
Surviving the scene could have been a challenge for Sharma — as well as his character — because before the movie, he'd never learned to swim. "I had never been in the ocean before that either," he says. "The max I had ever done was, you know, get my feet into the surf right at the end of the, you know, at the beach."
Eye Of The Tiger
Most of the film shows Pi trapped on a lifeboat with a vicious tiger named Richard Parker. Sharma was never in the boat with a real tiger — special effects were used to create that illusion. But there were four real tigers used for the production, so Sharma spent hours and hours watching the animals being trained to ensure that his fear would look genuine.
"Sometimes you look at them and you think, 'Aww that's just a big furry kitty cat.' Then there are other times when you just look at them and you realize these guys are powerful, strong, like really unpredictable creatures."
Eventually, Sharma says, his time watching tigers paid off, and his character's fear on the boat became real for him. "Richard Parker was there, you know. In my head, he just was on the boat. I didn't have to do much to imagine him there."
'Not The Most Disciplined Kid'
Director Ang Lee has raved about Sharma's performance and natural gifts as an actor. But the Oscar-winning filmmaker had some doubts about him at first, saying recently that Sharma was "not the most disciplined kid in India." Sharma admits that he was a bit of a troublemaker in the early days on set, especially after he found a scooter.
"When everybody was working and, you know, they were hard at work and extremely busy, I didn't have anything to do, so I used to go around on this little scooter and basically mess with people. So I was quite a nuisance!"
A Life-Changing Experience
The young actor says he spent 10 months doing things he never did before — things he never imagined he could do. He said he never worked so hard — or wanted to work so hard in his life — and he had never been exposed to so many amazing people.
"The intensity of a set is incredible, you know. And imagine things like this: You're coming from a little house, and you're in Taiwan. You don't know what's happening. And you go from the first day to the production office and they tell you, 'Oh, yeah, we took over an airport. And now that's our office. And the terminals are production thingy — production office. And we're gonna cut up the runway and build a tank.' It's just — it's really alien! You just don't imagine things like that! Just learning so much, you just get — your eyes get open to something," he says.
Sharma is attending college and hopes to continue on to film school. He says he might act or direct; he's not sure yet, but he just wants to tell stories.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Business spotlight: Bennett Management Services
The Business Spotlight this week is on Bennett Management Services, owned and operated by Lee Bennett.
Located in Monticello, Bennett Management specializes in archaeological surveys, historical research, and technical writing/editing. Lee has over 30 years of experience providing these services. Her expertise makes her invaluable to clients when it comes to deciphering regulations, supplying pertinent documents, and responding to government requests for public comment.
Bennett Management Services works with a variety of clients, including engineering firms and contractors, people researching their family and property histories, and private landowners.
Bennett Management Services has worked on several local projects, including the new Monticello airport, portions of the City's water collection system, and the Welcome Center. Lee has written several articles for the Blue Mountain Shadows and Canyon Legacy magazines.
But perhaps one of her most famous local clients is the Big 4 Tractor. Bennett Management Services has dedicated countless hours and resources researching the history of the tractor, and was even able to find and purchase the tractor's maintenance manuals. The use of these manuals was integral in getting the Big 4 up and running.
But, there's more! Lee is able to help those researching their own family history and provide ideas about searching records and documents. Give Bennett Management Services a call today at 435-587-2556.
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text: vital's top-of-the-line security and remote start system will start your car with the push of a button from up to 1,500 feet away – and confirm it has started on the large LCD screen of the 2-way remote. Security works the same way: when you arm or disarm your system, you will receive confirmation on the 2-way remote, and if your siren sounds the remote will beep or vibrate to let you know, from up to 1,500 feet away. System comes with one 2-way and one 4-button 1-way remote.


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Ad sales for what is just the second live-streaming of the Super Bowl are nearly complete, with CBSSports.com nearly sold out as advertisers seek to dangle their promotions in front of consumers whose familiarity with streaming video and "second screen" experiences has grown exponentially since the 2012 event.
"The online inventory is nearly sold out at this point," said David Morris, chief client officer of CBS Interactive, which is overseeing sales of the digital inventory surrounding the game. "We only have a few packages remaining."
When sports fans tune in for live streaming, Mr. Morris said, they will see ads from marketers supporting the pre-game and Super Bowl broadcasts on CBS. Ads will primarily come in the form of video commercials that appear during breaks in the game and "companion" advertising that is placed around the CBSSports player during game time.
Categories that will have a noticeable presence in the CBS live-stream include autos, consumer packaged goods, restaurants, beverages, retail and technology, he said, declining to name specific clients. But not every Super Bowl advertiser is in the live stream, Mr. Morris added. He declined to comment on the tone of the commercials, so it remains unclear whether digital viewers will be able to see all the big-budget TV ads for which the event is known.
While Super Bowl TV ads have been going for an average of between $3.7 million and $3.8 million, ad prices for digital inventory around the game are significantly less. Mr. Morris declined to offer a range of pricing CBS Interactive was getting, but NBC last year was selling inventory surrounding its live stream for a range that moved between the high six figure and low seven figures.
NBC broke ground last year with its live-streaming of the Super Bowl, the first time the gridiron classic was transmitted by a TV network in non-traditional fashion. NBC said its effort reached 2.1 million unique users.
Since that time, the mobile tablet market has expanded and more TV networks have tried offering digital content that viewers can follow while they watch programs on TV. With that in mind, said Mr. Morris, "you're going to have social features for sure; never-been-done-before camera angles."
CBS Interactive made pitches to advertisers with counterparts from the CBS network, Mr. Morris said. Advertisers were given the option of putting together a cross-platform package or talking to the two CBS Corp. units separately, he added.